Isaiah 59:21, commentary and pictures

The chapter lays bare the character of the priests and rabbis who opposed Jesus, whose false reasoning misled many who were convinced He was the Son of God. They perverted the very words of prophecy so as to sanction error. Those who sincerely studied the word for themselves and compared written prophecy with the facts of His life would not have been misled. They would have seen harmony between prophecy and its fulfillment.

The same chapter shows God seeing and being displeased when judgment is turned backward, truth fails, and there is no justice in business rooms and council meetings. There is no hope except in Him and His strength. The verse defines the work of Christ as saving people under Satan's power, carrying out the purposes planned in the counsels of heaven, and setting things in their right light after God's vineyard had been wrongly worked by unrighteous scribes and Pharisees.

God's covenant is that His Spirit that is upon His people and His words put in their mouth shall not depart out of their mouth, nor out of the mouth of their seed, nor out of the mouth of their seed's seed, but will remain with them and be passed on through every generation from henceforth and forever. The covenant belongs to those in Jacob who turn from transgression when the Redeemer comes to Zion, and it follows that coming and is joined to the Spirit's opposition to the enemy. The recipients are a people in training, chosen, elect and precious, once children of disobedience and disloyal to God but now a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people to show forth His praises. They are called out of darkness into marvelous light, who were not a people but are now the people of God and had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy, upon whom the Lord arises with glory that draws the Gentiles to their light.

The chapter is a prophecy of the state of the world just prior to the second coming, when the end of all things is at hand and iniquity abounds because men have transgressed the law and by continual transgression have broken the everlasting covenant given on condition of obedience. Then the world becomes increasingly under the sway of seducing spirits as men turn away from God and His righteous government. The verse promises God's covenant to take away the sins of Jacob when the Deliverer comes out of Zion to turn ungodliness away from Jacob, so that all Israel shall be saved. This means blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and then Jews who do not remain in unbelief will be grafted into their own olive tree again. The Jews are therefore not to be despised, for among them the Lord has mighty men who will proclaim the truth with power and whose receiving will be as life from the dead.

God keeps this covenant of His Spirit and words with His people and their children and children's children forever when they undergo conversion and overturning until every unrighteous, scheming and dishonest principle that has tarnished His sacred places is expelled. He keeps it when they work with an eye single to His glory and the sanctification of His Spirit becomes the controlling power. The promise belongs to God's people as they take the place Christ appoints them and reveal God's love by reaching others. It affirms that God's word instructs people in every age, including 1899.